Nothing is as clear a predictor of the trajectory of a society as technology. Besides its impact on overall productivity, technology has been a driving force for good—extending life spans, increasing access to knowledge and improving quality of life, among other things.
The 15th annual Games for Change Festival, June 28 through June 30 at Parsons School of Design, will feature programming around three tracks this year: neurohealth/gaming, education and civics and social issues. There will also be a separate day of the festival dedicated specifically to XR programming: the XR for Change Summit. Below is a list of scheduled speakers:
Rajesh Anandan (UNICEF USA)
Mimi Ito (University of California, Irvine; director, Connected Learning Lab)
John Hanke (Niantic, Inc. founder and CEO)
Jeffrey Burrell (Riot Games head of Corporate Social Responsibility)
Joanna Popper (HP global head of virtual reality for Location Based Entertainment)
Maxime Durand (Ubisoft Montréal franchise historian for “Assassin’s Creed”)
Dan Ayoub (Microsoft general manager, Mixed Reality Education)
Kristin Cook (Sesame Workshop producer)
Bradley Crooks (BBC Studios head of Digital Entertainment & Games)
Jax Deluca (National Endowment for the Arts director of Media Arts)
Alan Gershenfeld (E-Line Media president/co-founder)
Sam Gill (John S. and James L. Knight Foundation vice president/Communities & Impact, senior adviser to the president)
Susan Pollack is president and CEO of Games for Change. Describing the upcoming event, she explained its evolution: “We’ve grown from a convening of 40 people in a conference room to over a thousand attendees. We bring people together from different disciplines. We attract people from the public sector, educators, government agencies, to not for profits and then the private sector—a lot of brands and digital media companies.”
Pollack came to this position from what she describes as a “traditional media background.”
“I spent 15 years working in television for the BBC helping to raise funds for creating documentaries,” she said. “I then started working in Interactive Media with them as they saw how stories could be told on different platforms. I saw how powerful that could be because of the different ways you could engage with content.”
Pollack eventually consulted with Games of Change for a few years before formally joining the organization.
Pollack is personally most excited about this year’s festival because of “the people who come and introduce new people to the community.”
She said, “We have some really exciting participants this year that haven’t really had a presence at our festival before, like Triple A Game Studios, a speaker from RYOT Games—they make ‘League of Legends,’ the people from Ubisoft who make ‘Assassin’s Creed.’ They will talk about how their games are used for education and social good.”
One of the highlights of the festival will be the overall networking opportunities. Pollack shared that there will be a “speed networking” component. She said, “It’s a really fun session where you can meet people in five-minute speed dating rounds, which is always a highlight because you never know who you’re gonna meet but they’re always interesting.”
There will also be small intimate sessions with funders, such as the different federal agencies, where attendees can find out about funding for new projects and products. Pollack explained, “You meet with, for example, the National Endowment for the Arts or Department of Defense, and it’s an intimate Q&A session.”
Pollack also made clear that the Games for Change Festival is not just for experts. “A good amount of our attendees are those who are exploring the space for the first time,” she explained, “and they’re trying to get the lay of the land, understand what’s possible, who future partners may be, and the like.”
The XR for Change Summit, formerly known as VR for Change, will take place Saturday, June 30, and will be focused on uniting developers, storytellers, researchers, journalists, artists, nonprofits and others to harness the potential of AR/VR/MR to increase positive social impact. “It is a different kind of experience from the Games for Change Festival,” Pollack said. “It is dedicated to Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality. It’s not limited to games.”
The Games for Change Festival will also feature an XR Brain Jam, a collaborative two-and-a-half-day event that pairs neuroscience researchers and game developers to explore how VR can be used in neuroscience research and cognitive therapy. The game jam, co-hosted by Games for Change and Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, with tech sponsorship by Hewlett-Packard (HP), will take place June 25 to June 27.
Guests interested in attending the XR for Change Summit can purchase tickets by visiting http://g4c18.eventbrite.com.